Art, Memory and Multitasking

In the fall of 2011, while director Danny Boyle was preparing his patriotic, family-oriented vision for the London Olympics opening ceremony, he was simultaneously shooting his latest movie, a noir-ish psychological thriller about an art heist gone horribly wrong, with a creepy subplot involving body hair. The unusual mix "allowed us to keep the dark side of our minds active while we did the public, responsible job in the Olympic park," says Mr. Boyle, known for his Oscar-winning film "Slumdog Millionaire."

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Watch a clip from the film "Trance." An art auctioneer (James McAvoy) who has become mixed up with a group of criminals partners with a hypnotherapist (Rosario Dawson) in order to recover a lost painting. (Photo/Video: Fox Searchlight Pictures)

"Trance," which opens April 5, stars James McAvoy as Simon, an auction-house employee who, after getting whacked on the head during the theft of a £27.5 million ($41.8 million) painting, wakes up in the hospital and can't remember where he put it. Rosario Dawson co-stars as an alluring hypnotherapist who attempts to unlock Simon's memories of the painting's hiding place.

In real life, the painting in question, Francisco Goya's "Witches in the Air," isn't missing. It's safely ensconced at the Prado Museum in Madrid. Mr. Boyle chose it for the film because he thought the figure in the painting's foreground—a man with a blanket over his head—reminded him of Simon, in that "he could only partially see what was around him." The director talked about Goya, the Olympics, the queen and juggling two big projects at once. Edited from an interview.

How did you and screenwriter John Hodge decide to make the stolen painting Goya's "Witches in the Air"?

There are lots of paintings that have been stolen, some of which we mention in the film. Rembrandt's "Storm on the Sea of Galilee" is probably the most famous. The first reason we went with Goya is that he's the first great painter of the psychology of the human mind, the first modernist, really. Previously people painted portraits, as indeed he did, and he painted landscapes, but not the traditional landscapes. Landscapes of the mind. He painted more and more interiors. Then we looked at Goya's paintings and we were fascinated by "Witches in the Air." [Like the figure in the painting] Simon's mind had been obscured, and his memories had been stolen.

Goya also was the first artist to depict women in a less idealized way, right?

Yes, the other reason to pick Goya. He painted those two versions of the Maja. The naked Maja obviously features pubic hair for the first time in the history of painting. Goya was a great modernist unflinchingly looking at life. It's funny to think about it because we live in a world with online porn everywhere, but for his time, painting pubic hair must have been as revolutionary as you could get.

In the film, there's a Van Gogh, a Modigliani, the Rembrandt—those are all missing, right?

Yes, those are all the great stolen paintings. The value of those would be incalculable, I think. People say some of them have almost certainly been destroyed. But I think a Manet was found in Serbia a couple of weeks ago, so they turn up occasionally. Apart from that slightly romantic idea of evil private collectors insisting on having these priceless paintings, "Dr. No"-style in their own lair, the reality is that they get used as collateral instead of gold, or cash.

Did you attend art auctions to do research for this film?

Yes, we went to Sotheby's. In fact, the senior auctioneer who does the main Goya painting is called Mark Poltimore and he's a senior art auctioneer at Sotheby's. He's also appeared on television in Britain as part of a reality show [the BBC's "Antiques Roadshow"]. So he was experienced with cameras. He took us through their whole world, which was riveting. I had one of those moments where there was a Chagall on auction—and it was just so beautiful, I can't even tell you. You know his floating paintings? They are so romantic. And there was one right there. So you are thinking for a moment, "My God! Should I? Could I?"

Did you bid on it?

No, it was a lot of money. It ended up at £2.4 million. But there was a moment of "If I raise my hand now and nobody else does, I will own that painting."

You shot "Trance" in 2011, while you were also planning the Olympics opening ceremony. That sounds insane.

Actually, it helped us stay sane. The Olympics is very corporate and very administrative, a lot of procedural work, committee work, which would certainly drive me insane. What we did was in the two-year period over which we were doing the Olympics, we took two sabbaticals. For one of them, with the same group of people we did a stage play "Frankenstein" at the National Theatre in London. And for our holiday in 2011, we went off and made "Trance." We didn't edit it properly. We just shot it and put it on ice until we completed the Olympic obligation. But it was great because the Olympics opening ceremony is a family-friendly thing. You're conscious of the nation, responsible, can't do any swearing. You certainly can't explore the dark side of Goya. If you think about the shows, "Frankenstein" and "Trance," they are like the evil twin sisters of the pretty princess that was the Olympic opening ceremonies.

Was there anything from the Olympics ceremony that influenced this film?

I think it was more to do with the deliciousness of dark storytelling and how much you miss that. Listen, I loved doing the Olympic opening ceremony. But I loved being able to work at night on something disturbing. Your only worry is if people turn up for "Trance" expecting more of the Olympic opening ceremony—they will be in for a bit of a shock.

At South by Southwest, you showed the ending of this film to an audience. Do you not care about spoilers?

It's an interesting question. I think when you go into a cinema, it's the savior of the relationship between publicity and the audience, which is important. You can't tease people too much in press and publicity because it becomes annoying. But the savior is that I think there's an amnesiac effect on you when you sit down and the lights go off and you watch the movie. I am not thinking, "I know what's coming—because I read that article in The Wall Street Journal!" At first [with "Trance"] we thought we wouldn't give anything away in the press and promotion, because you wouldn't know anything at all about the film in an ideal world. You wouldn't know which character to be sympathetic to, or to root for. One of the delights of this film is that it shifts. But realistically in the modern world you can't do that. It isn't a massive film like "Batman" so you have to give away a bit of it and hope that the amnesiac effect that's part of the subject of the film is working on the audience as well.

Earlier this month, Sam Mendes said that he's not going to do another James Bond movie. You've become so associated with James Bond because of that incredible Olympics stunt with Daniel Craig and the queen. You'd never consider it?

Rachel, you can try and persuade me if you want me to do it.

You should definitely do it.

When I grew up, I read the Ian Fleming novels multiple times, all of them. They were like my kind of bible. I was brought up a strict Catholic, and all of a sudden you've got these books with this guy who is always sleeping naked between cotton sheets. I've seen the movies. But I wouldn't be very good at making one of these movies. It would make a lovely headline, especially having done the Olympic opening ceremony with [Daniel Craig as Bond] and the queen, but what matters is the quality of the film in the end. I don't think it suits my working process. So, I'd have to say even with your best advice, I'd have to politely decline.

Is it because of the budget?

It's partly the scale of the thing. It's also, one of the things we try and do, is we try and take a genre—and Bond is obviously its own genre in a way—and we mess with it. And that freedom to mess with it, you can only do so much messing with a big franchise. Your obligation is to the scale of the experience world-wide.

What happened when you proposed to Buckingham Palace the idea of James Bond's entrance at the Olympics?

We wrote up the idea for procedural reasons and we submitted it to the Palace, imagining completely that this would go two ways: They would either approve the palace—and we included that we'd obviously cast a very good double who is also a good actress—or, the more likely scenario, they wouldn't approve it and we'd have to rethink it. Part of the Olympics is that you have to bring the head of state into the stadium. There are many ways of doing that, so we thought if [they say no] we'll just think of a different one. And they came back and said, "Yes, and the queen would like to portray herself in the film."

Did you think they were serious?

You check the calendar very quickly to make sure it's not April 1, because you think some newspaper is winding you up mercilessly and is going to expose you as an idiot. But she was lovely. She wanted, her staff wanted, to have a day out with James Bond. Her staff work tirelessly.

Are you really making a "Trainspotting" sequel?

We are very serious about it, yes. It would be a unique opportunity to take the same actors playing the same characters and look at them 20 years later. Particularly ones who had been hedonists in their 20s, when you can take all those risks with your body. What have they done with their lives? It's a lovely way to do a sequel that doesn't cash in on the reputation of the other one.

People have said your Olympics ceremony helped elevate the self-esteem of the British people, who had grown used to mocking themselves. How do you feel about this? Was that your intent?

I feel very good about us mocking ourselves as well. That's our sense of humor. But it was just a reminder that we're OK, actually. And more than that. We obviously had a lot of volunteers who came from abroad. And you talk to them, and we sometimes forget—Americans too—that people love our countries because they find them a beacon. We are so self-critical, which is part of our liberal constitutions and sense of humor and free press, but you forget that for a lot of people we are very inspiring places. There's freedom to live your own life. If you work hard you can prosper. And that's a lovely thing. And in Britain because of the nature of our empire we've been particularly living with the shadow of that, because as well as doing a lot of good it did a lot of damage. Sometimes it's good to shrug that off and be proud of what we have achieved. I didn't want to get into politics.

A member of the conservative party in Britain was saying that the Tories have to pass "the Danny Boyle test" to win the next general election.

That's a hoot, isn't it? The first thing they've got to do to pass the test is to see our movie and bring us the ticket stub.

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